Electronic Resources
The following online databases are available to the public and EPA staff. Access to items marked with a is restricted to EPA Region 9 desktops and library workstations (per licensing agreements).
Library Resources | Scientific and Technical Resources |
U.S. EPA Online Library Catalog | Cambridge Scientific Abstracts ![]() |
EPA Desktop Library ![]() |
ChemWatch ![]() |
Librarians' Internet Index | Full Text Journals![]() |
Reference USA ![]() |
Hazardous Substances Data Bank |
Environmental News | Hazardous Waste Clean-Up Information |
BNA Daily Environment Report![]() |
Index to EPA Test Methods |
Environment & Energy Daily ![]() |
MEDLINE |
Greenwire ![]() |
NPL (National Priorities List) |
Inside EPA Newsletters ![]() |
Records of Decision System (RODS) |
Legal Resources | Science Research Resources ![]() |
Code of Federal Regulations | ScienceDirect ![]() |
![]() FR & Statute. State laws & regs too. |
SW-846 |
![]() |
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) |
TOXLINE |
U.S. EPA Online Library Catalog
The Online Library System (OLS) or U.S. EPA Library Network catalog can be used to locate books, reports and audiovisual materials on a variety of topics. The OLS is updated every two weeks and is searchable by title, author, and keyword.
EPA Desktop Library
Access current news, journal articles, reports and reference materials through the Desktop Library. Both commercial and freely-available resources are available through this EPA Librarian-created portal.
Librarians' Internet
Index
The Librarians' Index to the Internet (lii.org) is a searchable, annotated subject directory of Internet resources selected and evaluated by research librarians.
Reference USA
Produced by INFO USA, this database provides data on more than 12 million businesses. Information is compiled from the Yellow Pages and business White Pages of more than 5600 telephone directories from the United States and Canada, annual reports, leading business magazines, and other sources. The data provided includes business name, decision maker, street address, phone and fax numbers, SIC codes, estimated sales, etc. To ensure the accuracy of information, the publisher's staff place thousands of verification telephone calls daily. A label-printing feature is available for EPA users of this database.
Environmental News
BNA Daily Environment Report![](images/clover_blue.gif)
![Exiting EPA (disclaimer)](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090511075704im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/epafiles_misc_exitepadisc.gif)
This comprehensive, current source on environmental laws, regulations, and policies covers the full range of environmental topics with news articles, analyses, statistics, and reprints of key official documents.
Environment & Energy Daily
Environment & Energy daily covers environmental actions in Congress, providing daily updates from the Hill, a committee calendar and special reports on topics of interest. Readers can also track the progress of bills, including EPA appropriations bills, using the Legislative Status page on the site.
Greenwire
Greenwire provides daily coverage of environmental and energy politics and policy. This publication gives direct access to a wealth of additional resources, including reports, analyses, memos, bills, stories by other news organizations and more.
Inside EPA Newsletters
Six newsletters from Inside EPA (a commercial publisher) are available. This site also provides full text access to background documents mentioned in the newsletters:
- Inside EPA Weekly Report
- Environmental Policy Report
- Clean Air Report
- Superfund Report
- Water Policy Report
- Risk Policy Report
Legal Resources
Code of Federal Regulations![Exiting EPA (disclaimer)](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090511075704im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/epafiles_misc_exitepadisc.gif)
Access the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) through the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO) site.
CyberRegs
CyberRegs is a full text database of federal laws and regulations. It includes the Federal Register (January 1996 - present) and all 50 titles of the Code of Federal Regulations. Links are provided between the Federal Register and the Code of Federal Regulations. CyberRegs also includes state laws and regulations as well as selected county regulations. Laws and regulations for more than 20 other countries in the world are also provided.
Access is available at the Library's public access computers and at every EPA Region 9 desktop. Region 9 staff can request a personal user ID and password that allows customization of the Web site and access from external locations. Staff can register to receive email notification when a change is made to any regulation of interest.
Federal Register
Federal Register (1994 - present, GPO)
Federal Register (1985 - present, Dialog)
Federal Register (1936 - Current Year, HeinOnline)
Scientific and Technical Resources
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts![](images/clover_blue.gif)
![Exiting EPA (disclaimer)](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/eot2008/20090511075704im_/http://www.epa.gov/epafiles/images/epafiles_misc_exitepadisc.gif)
CSA provides references and abstracts to scientific literature covering all areas of the environment. Sources include more than 1,000 primary journals, conference proceedings, books and reports. The following sub-files are included: Water Resources Abstracts, Pollution Abstracts, Agricultural & Environmental Biotechnology Abstracts, Aquatic Pollution & Environmental Quality (ASFA3), Ecology Abstracts, Environmental Engineering Abstracts, EIS: Digest of Environmental Impact Statements, Toxicology Abstracts, Health and Safety Science Abstracts, and more.
ChemWatch
ChemWatch provides access to more than 80,000 Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS), including information for more than 35,000 pure substances and 400,000 synonyms. Due to license agreements, web site access is provided to EPA staff and EPA on-site contractors only. For EPA staff and EPA on-site contractor access, please contact the Library at 415-947-4406.
Full Text Journals
Science, Nature, Environmental Health Perspectives, and Environmental Science and Technology are available online in full text.
Hazardous Substances Data Bank (HSDB)
The HSDB provides information on chemical/physical properties, human health effects, metabolism/pharmacokinetics, environmental fate/exposure, and occupational exposure standards for more than 4,500 chemicals. All data are referenced and derived from a core set of well-known texts, government documents, technical reports and selected primary journal literature.
Hazardous Waste Clean-Up Information
Hazardous Waste Clean-Up Information (CLU-IN) is an excellent source of technical information on the topic of hazardous waste. CLU-IN also provides information about TechDirect, a free information service that highlights new publications and events of interest to site remediation and site assessment professionals. Subscribers to TechDirect receive monthly e-mail listings describing the availability of publications and information on upcoming events. TechDirect provides information on how to obtain a hard copy or download an electronic version for the publications listed. Many of the reports mentioned in these two services are available in the Library's Hazardous Waste Collection.
Index to EPA Test Methods
This is EPA's National Index for identifying and locating EPA's standard methods to test for various substances. One can search by method number, method name or substance. Updated periodically, this index is produced by the EPA Region 1 Librarian.
MEDLINE
A service of the National Library of Medicine, this bibliographic database contains references to more than 12 million journal citations dating back to the mid-1960s. Search for articles in the fields of medicine, nursing, veterinary medicine, and the health care system.
NPL (National Priorities List)
The NPL (also known as the "Superfund List") is the list of geographic sites identified for cleanup under the federal Superfund Program. From this EPA National Web site, you can get information on new and proposed NPL sites, check their cleanup progress, and find out where sites are located. The Basic Query page allows searching by site name, city, county, state, zip code, and contaminants of concern.
Records of Decision System
A Superfund Record of Decision (ROD) is the cleanup plan for a Superfund site. Full text copies of RODs can be found on RODS, the EPA Records of Decision System. You can search by site name; EPA site ID number; state, city or county; or by keyword (such as a contaminant or remediation type).
Science Research Resources
Link to a complete list of scientific research resources such as Biosis, Current Contents, Science Citation Search, and Environmental Bibliography. Available from the EPA Desktop Library.
ScienceDirect
ScienceDirect provides access to more than 1,700 research journals in the life, physical, medical, technical, and social sciences. Full text articles for all Elsevier and Academic Press journals to which the EPA subscribes are available. Abstracts of articles are available for all other journals.
SW-846
Officially titled "Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste, Physical/Chemical Methods", SW-846 is the EPA National Web site providing test procedures used in determining whether waste is a hazardous waste as defined in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations. For additional information on EPA test methods, see EPA test methods and other information resources.
Toxics Release Inventory (TRI)
This is EPA's National database containing information on toxic chemical releases and other waste management activities reported annually by certain covered industry groups as well as federal facilities. Data is based on information collected under EPA reporting requirements from approximately 80,000 facilities submitting the amount of chemicals they release. TRI can be searched by chemicals, CAS numbers, facilities, community names, zip codes, etc.
TOXLINE
Toxline provides access to published literature on the biochemical, pharmacological, physiological, and toxicological effects of drugs and other chemicals. It is a subset within the much larger Medline database.
Additional Services available to EPA Region 9 employees include:
- Corporate Research
- Inter-Library Loan Requests
- In-Depth Reference
- Journal Table of Content Service
- Training in Database and Internet Research